The Dark Side of Democratic Courage

Abstract

Ryan K. Balot The Dark Side of Democratic Courage* COURAGE IS THE MOST EXCITING OF THE CANONICAL VIRTUES. ONE r e c e n t student ranks courage alongside love as the m ost popu­ lar theme in world literature (Miller, 2000: 8-12). By contrast, other virtues, such as justice, patience, or self-control, are the favorite topics of abstract philosophizing, but, on the face of it, they are boring to contemplate (cf. Shklar, 1990: 15-19; Miller, 2000: 8). The peculiar allure of courage is one clue to its darker, more problematic dimen­ sions. To illuminate these dimensions, I will examine courage as a feature of political rhetoric and practice, since it is on the enlarged stage of politics that the opportunities and dangers presented by courage stand out in highest relief. More immediately, in the post9 /11 world, we are saturated with the images and rhetoric of courage. When politicians call the terrorists "cowardly," they gain political capital by presenting themselves in the manly garb of combat. Just before delivering a speech to the nation on May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush sported a flight suit and flew in the navigator's seat of a Navy plane to the USS Abraham Lincoln. Upon deplaning, he said, "I *1 would like to thank Arien Mack for inviting me to contribute this paper to the present volume and Cara Schlesinger for her help with the production. Josiah Ober, Kurt Raaflaub, and Carroll Hilles provided valuable comments on earlier drafts. Thanks too to the St. Louis area ancient phi­ losophy reading group, especially Eric Brown, Bob Lamberton, and Henry Shapiro, for discussing the Statesman with me. To avoid translating the Greek texts to suit particular interpretations, I have relied on published translations, which are listed in the bibliography. I have sometimes lightly adapted these translations to bring out key ideas in context. Kochin (2002) came to my attention too late to be taken into account here, but I am happy to see several points of agreement between our accounts; I will discuss these agreements, as well as my differences with Kochin, in future work on the topic. social research Vol 71 : No 1: Spring 2004 73 miss flying, I can tell you that" (figure 1; Rich, 2003). In such a charged political climate, we have become anxious about trying to figure out who is courageous, what counts as courage, and what accounts, both politically and personally, for the production of courage. If courage has become an object of national anxiety in our "strong democracy" (a misprision of Barber's evocative epithet), then that is all to the good (Barber, 1984). We should be worried about courage. I. THE SONTAG CASE A good example of our intense interest in courage is the furor over Susan Sontag's column about the terrorist attacks (Sontag, 2001). Sontag made several points that proved highly inflammatory. First, she argued that the terrorists could not be called cowards because they willingly died to complete their mission. Second, she speculated that the label "cowardly" might more reasonably be applied to pilots who drop bombs from altitudes that make resistance unlikely. Third, she added parenthetically that courage is "a morally neutral virtue." Sontag wrote the column to puncture the complacency of the administration's simplistic rhetoric after the attacks. Perhaps unexpectedly, the result was a heated nationwide discussion about the ethical and political status of courage. The backlash was swift and disquieting.1Appearing with Sontag on Ted Koppel's news show, Nightline, Todd Gaziano of the Heritage Foundation reportedly declared that Sontag should be excluded from speaking in "honorable intellectual circles." After prompting from Koppel, Gaziano retracted this view, only to add that Sontag should be censured for her ideas. This exchange exemplifies a larger point: the anger and aggressiveness following the attacks gave rise to calls for censorship and assaults on free speech, not to mention the hate mail Sontag received in the aftermath of the column. In an interview with David Talbot ofSalon, Sontag drew attention to the government's efforts to censor news coverage as well as the media's spontaneous self-censorship (Talbot, 2001). Perhaps "patriots" have started to create political 74 social...